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• Legislation & Compliance

A University Guide to Budgeting and Auditing for ADA Video Compliance

Noah Pearson

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November 19, 2025

Download Our ADA Title II Compliance Checklist

With the April 2026 ADA Title II compliance deadline fast approaching, public colleges and universities must ensure that all programs, services, and digital materials are accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Because video content plays such a central role in modern learning and can be especially challenging to make accessible, it’s essential for institutions to take a proactive approach to remediation.

Challenges around ADA video compliance include creating accurate captions, adding audio descriptions, and providing properly formatted transcripts for students who rely on assistive technologies.

Institutions now face the dual challenge of auditing existing content and budgeting effectively for accessible media. This guide will walk universities through the key steps to plan, budget, and audit video content, helping them meet compliance requirements while fostering a more equitable learning environment.

Key Takeaways

• Start early: Audit all video and digital content now to meet upcoming Title II deadlines in April 2026.
• Plan strategically: Categorize content and build a budget that covers both backlog and ongoing accessibility needs.
• Leverage the right tools: Use 3Play Media’s captioning, transcription, and audio description to simplify compliance and ensure inclusion.

Table of Contents

• The Countdown to ADA Video Compliance
• Phase 1: Conducting a Content Audit
• Phase 2: Building a Budget for Title II Compliance
• Summary Action Plan
• What’s Next?
• ADA Video Compliance FAQs

The Countdown to ADA Video Compliance

With the Department of Justice’s new regulations taking effect in 2026, institutions are now facing a clear mandate: make all digital and video content accessible to individuals with disabilities.

But beyond compliance, this moment offers higher education a chance to redefine what equitable access looks like in the digital classroom, ensuring that every student can fully engage with online learning and communications.

What is Title II?

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all public entities (including state and local governments, public colleges, and universities) to ensure that their programs and services are accessible to individuals with disabilities.

In the digital age, this includes online and multimedia content such as videos, course materials, and virtual events. Whether a lecture is streamed live, archived in an LMS, or shared publicly on YouTube, it must be made accessible through tools like captions, transcripts, and audio description.

To meet compliance standards, universities are expected to align their digital content with WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines, which provide internationally recognized standards for making web and video content perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for all users.

Simply put: Title II extends the same accessibility expectations that exist for physical spaces to the digital spaces where learning and communication now happen every day.

Free Resources

Title II Compliance Checklist

Download this checklist for a comprehensive breakdown of Title II requirements, an example timeline for compliance, a systematic guide to tackling content backlogs, and more!

Download the Checklist

Why ADA Video Compliance Matters for Higher Education

ADA Title II marks an important shift in how universities approach accessibility. Instead of waiting for individual students to request accommodations, the new ruling requires institutions to proactively ensure that digital and video content is accessible from the start.

According to the CDC, 15.7% of US adults have difficulty hearing, and 18.0% have difficulty seeing, highlighting the need for a proactive approach to accessibility.

This legislation helps not only those who identify as having a disability, but also the millions of people who don’t consider themselves disabled and wouldn’t think to request an accommodation, but would benefit from accessibility features.

It also reduces the burden on disability services teams and faculty who often scramble to retrofit content and creates a more consistent, inclusive experience for all learners.

By embedding accessibility into everyday workflows, universities can support students more effectively, minimize legal risk, and build a campus culture centered on equity rather than exceptions.

Upcoming Title II Deadlines

Here’s a breakdown of the Title II deadlines:

Important note: These deadlines apply to existing content, not just new uploads. That means auditing, remediation, staffing, and budgeting all need to begin now to meet the timeline.

Phase 1: Conducting a Content Audit

Before creating a budget, it’s essential to understand the full scope of content that requires remediation. For large universities, the total amount of video needing captions and audio descriptions can easily reach millions of minutes.

Knowing the scope is crucial for institutions estimate costs accurately and allocate resources effectively.

We’ll now cover the steps you need to take to efficiently audit your content.

1. Assemble a Compliance Team

The first step in auditing content for Title II compliance is to bring together a dedicated compliance team. Accessibility is not just an IT or disability services issue, it requires collaboration across multiple departments.

A strong team typically includes representatives from:

• Disability services – to provide expertise on student needs and compliance requirements
• IT and media services – to manage technical implementation of captions, transcripts, and accessible video players
• Faculty or instructional designers – to make sure course content is accessible while maintaining effective teaching and learning outcomes.
• Legal or compliance officers – to advise on regulatory obligations and documentation

• Administrative leadership – to oversee budgeting, resource allocation, and cross-department coordination

Clearly defining roles and responsibilities at the outset ensures that everyone knows their part in the process. This collaborative approach also helps universities respond efficiently to accessibility gaps and streamline remediation efforts.

2. Conduct a Video Content Inventory

Once your compliance team is in place, the next step is to identify and catalog all video assets across the university. Conducting a thorough content inventory provides a clear picture of what exists, where accessibility gaps may lie, and how much content will require remediation — critical information for budgeting and planning.

Key steps for an effective content inventory include:

• Identify all content sources: Look across learning management systems (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, etc.), public websites, online video platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.), social media channels, video libraries, archived lectures, virtual events, and webinars. Don’t forget embedded third-party content, such as guest lectures, vendor videos, or integrated learning tools.
• Categorize content by type and format: Note whether videos are live-streamed, recorded lectures, short clips, or multimedia presentations. This helps determine the specific accessibility services required, which we will expand on in step #3.
• Record ownership and usage: Track who owns the content, how often it is used, and which courses or departments rely on it. This information helps prioritize remediation efforts and assign responsibilities.
• Flag high-priority assets: Identify videos that are essential for student learning, public-facing, or frequently accessed. These should be addressed first to minimize compliance risk and maximize impact.
• Centralize documentation: Maintain a single, organized record of all content, including file locations, formats, accessibility status, and notes on remediation needs. This centralized inventory supports ongoing compliance tracking and reporting.

3. Assess Accessibility of Each Asset

After completing your content inventory, the next step is to categorize each video asset based on the accessibility features it requires. This helps universities prioritize remediation and allocate resources efficiently.

Key elements to review during an accessibility assessment include:

• Captions: All spoken content should have synchronized captions that identify speakers and include important non-speech sounds.
• Audio Descriptions: Videos with critical visual information should include audio descriptions for students who are blind or have low vision.
• Transcripts: Provide complete, screen reader–friendly transcripts that serve as a text alternative for all audio and visual content.
• Video Player Accessibility: Ensure players are compatible with assistive technologies and support keyboard navigation, screen readers, and adjustable playback features.
• Third-Party Content: Review external videos and embedded tools to confirm accessibility, and coordinate with vendors to obtain captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions if needed.

Tools to Conduct an Accessibility Audit

Conducting an audit can be done with manual review and automated tools to increase efficiency. Combining the two helps universities find obvious accessibility problems quickly while also checking harder-to-spot issues, like complex visuals.

Automated Accessibility Tools

These tools quickly scan websites, LMS platforms, and video content to detect common accessibility issues such as missing captions, poor color contrast, or inaccessible headings.

Examples include WAVE, Siteimprove, Axe, and SortSite, which provide detailed reports and recommendations for fixes.

There are also LMS-native tools designed specifically to scan course content for accessibility issues. Examples include:

• Blackboard Ally — integrates with multiple LLMs including Blackboard Learn, Canvas, and Moodle
• UDOIT (Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool) — Canvas’ built-in accessibility tool
• Moodle’s Accessibility Starter Toolkit — Moodle’s built-in accessibility tool

While automated tools are efficient, they cannot catch all issues, especially nuanced content like complex diagrams, animations, or context-dependent visual information.

Manual Review

This includes checking captions for accuracy, reviewing audio descriptions, testing video players with screen readers, and ensuring transcripts are readable and properly formatted.

Human review is essential for verifying that content meets accessibility standards and is usable by students with disabilities.

Faculty or instructional designers can also check whether the content is easy for students to understand and use.

Phase 2: Building a Budget for Title II Compliance

Once the initial audit has quantified your compliance debt, the next crucial step is translating those minutes into a sustainable financial plan. This plan must address both the cost of fixing existing content and the cost of maintaining compliance for new content going forward.

A. Cost Modeling: Vendor vs. In-House

The first decision in budgeting is determining your primary fulfillment strategy. The costs associated with each model are calculated differently and have different risks.

1. Vendor Model (e.g., 3Play Media)

This is the most straightforward and reliable approach for meeting regulatory requirements.

• Cost Metric: Cost Per Minute (CPM).
• Budget Calculation: (Total Minutes from Audit) x (Vendor CPM Rate) = Total Remediation Cost.
• Pros:
  • Guaranteed Accuracy: Vendors can support the specific accuracy requirements you have across different video formats.
  • Scalability: Ability to handle large batches of content quickly, reducing the timeline for compliance.
  • Turnaround Time: Faster processing, often within 24-48 hours, essential for course materials.
• Cons: Requires dedicated funding commitment.

2. In-House Model

This involves using internal staff (e.g., student workers, instructional designers) to handle captioning and transcription.

• Cost Metric: Fully Loaded Staff Hour Rate (Salary + Benefits + Overhead).
• Budget Calculation: (Total Minutes from Audit) x (Estimated Minutes per Hour for Manual Work) x (Staff Hour Rate) = Total In-House Cost.
  • Note: Manual captioning/transcription often takes 5 to 10 times the video length.
• Pros: Seemingly lower upfront cost.
• Cons:
  • Hidden Costs: High staff turnover, training overhead, and critical quality assurance (QA) needed to ensure 99% accuracy.
  • Risk: Quality issues can still expose the institution to legal risk.

Recommendation: Use a reliable vendor for all high-priority, public-facing, and academic content where accuracy is non-negotiable. Only use in-house resources for quality review or very low-stakes internal materials.

B. Identifying Budget Components

Your annual compliance budget should be structured around two primary cost buckets to ensure completeness:

Remediation Costs (One-Time / Project-Based)

This budget is solely for tackling the existing backlog identified in the audit. It should be treated as a project with a defined scope and timeline (e.g., a 12-to-24 month remediation window).

• Example: $50,000 to caption the 5,000 minutes of high-risk archival lectures.

Ongoing Production Costs (Annual / Sustained)

This is the most critical component for future-proofing compliance. It covers the cost of captioning every new video created during the fiscal year. This cost is ideally estimated based on historical trends (e.g., “The university produces approximately 1,200 new hours of video annually”).

• Example: Allocating $40,000 annually for new credit-bearing course videos.

C. Funding Strategies: Centralized vs. Decentralized

How the budget is managed and sourced determines the success and consistency of your compliance efforts.

D. Leveraging Dynamic Accuracy for Efficiency

Traditional compliance budgeting is a trade-off: either you risk non-compliance with cheap automated captioning, or you budget heavily for human captioning on everything.

3Play Media offers a way to eliminate this “all or nothing” dilemma by leveraging data science to manage risk and budget simultaneously.

The Predicted Caption Accuracy model allows a university to drastically reduce expenditure on human services without sacrificing captioning compliance quality.

1. Universal Screening: All video content (new and backlog) is first run through an AI engine to generate initial captions.
2. Risk Quantification: Instead of delivering just a machine transcript, the process generates a data-driven Accuracy Score for each video file. This score indicates the probability that the AI captions meet or exceed a set compliance threshold.
3. Targeted Upgrade: The university defines its minimum required accuracy (e.g., 90% for a low-risk internal video, 99% for a credit-bearing lecture). Only those specific video files whose score fails to meet that internal threshold are automatically routed for a human quality review or full edit.

3Play’s dynamic approach means your budget is no longer wasted paying for human editors to review videos the AI already nailed.

Instead, you pay for human services only where the risk of non-compliance is demonstrably high, enabling maximum efficiency within your allocated compliance funds.

Summary Action Plan

The budgeting phase is complete when you can present a clear, defensible financial plan to executive leadership. Use the following action items to bridge your audit data with your final budget request:

1. Quantify the Total Compliance Debt

The audit’s final tally of non-compliant minutes is the core of your budget request. Present this to leadership not as a list of failures, but as the total scope of work (SOW) required to mitigate legal risk.

• Action: Calculate the total number of minutes that require remediation (High Priority + Medium Priority content).
• Result: A clear, quantifiable SOW (e.g., “The institution has a compliance debt of 15,000 minutes of lecture content and 3,000 minutes of public-facing media.”).

2. Establish Minimum Accuracy Thresholds

Not all video carries the same legal or academic risk. Applying the concept of dynamic accuracy allows you to set variable service requirements, which dramatically optimizes costs.

• Action: Define accuracy requirements based on content type.
• Example:
  • 99% Accuracy (Human Service): Mandatory for credit-bearing courses, official commencement, executive statements, and mandatory HR training.
  • 90% Accuracy (Machine + Light Review): Acceptable for departmental archives, non-essential internal announcements, and faculty self-produced content.
• Result: A policy document that justifies different price points for different video types, ensuring you only pay for human-level services where legally necessary.

3. Create a Two-Part Financial Request

To ensure long-term sustainability, separate the budget request into two distinct categories. This prevents the ongoing problem of compliance debt continuing to accumulate.

Part 1: Remediation Budget (One-Time): A project-based budget dedicated only to clearing the existing compliance debt identified in the audit. This should be a large, fixed sum requested once.

Part 2: Production Budget (Annual/Sustained): An operating expense budget dedicated to captioning all new content created this year and every year thereafter. This prevents future compliance backlogs.

What’s Next?

Preparing for ADA Title II compliance may feel overwhelming, but with the right strategy and tools in place, universities can move from reactive fixes to a sustainable, proactive approach to accessibility.

By auditing your content and building a realistic budget, you create a strong foundation for long-term inclusion and smoother compliance workflows.

We have several Title II resources such as our Title II Compliance Checklist and our Title II Video Compliance 101 webinar that can help you in this process. See all of our Title II resources.

3Play Media also offers key services that directly support the core requirements of video accessibility under Title II:

• Captioning: Our captioning solutions are built for accuracy, speaker identification, and correct timing to meet WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA requirements.
• Audio Description: We provide high-quality, AI-enabled audio description that helps you meet Title II requirements while scaling affordably to match your volume. AI-enabled audio description that ensure you achieve Title II compliance while affordably scaling to meet your needs.

As the Title II deadlines approach, having an experienced accessibility partner can make all the difference. With 3Play Media, universities gain the tools and expertise needed to build a more inclusive, compliant, and student-centered digital environment.

Chat with a member of our team to see if 3Play is a good fit for your institution:

ADA Video Compliance FAQs

About the author

Noah Pearson

As a marketing specialist with 3Play Media, Noah specializes in accessibility and localization content creation, leveraging his technology expertise to help organizations expand their global reach and create a more inclusive digital experience.

The post A University Guide to Budgeting and Auditing for ADA Video Compliance appeared first on 3Play Media.

Blog

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• Accessibility

cielo24 Acquisition: The Case for Migrating to 3Play Media

Noah Pearson

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October 1, 2025

Schedule a Consultation

Background of cielo24 Closure

cielo24, a provider of accessibility and media intelligence solutions such as captioning, transcription, and data labeling, recently announced that they were shutting their doors and being acquired by Rev.

Rev is a speech-to-text company that provides services like transcription, captions, and subtitles. While providing similar services to cielo24, there are significant gaps when it comes to services such as audio description and live captioning.

With September 30th, 2025 having been their last day in operation, customers are left with the choice to migrate to Rev’s platform, which may not fully accommodate their needs, or seek out alternative providers.

In this blog, we’ll break down advantages and disadvantages of migrating to Rev and why switching to an all-in-one accessibility and localization vendor like 3Play Media may be the better option.

The Pros and Cons of Migrating to Rev

For former cielo24 customers, Rev may feel like a natural landing spot given the acquisition. On the plus side, Rev offers a wide range of transcription and captioning services, with both AI-driven and human-powered options.

They are also well-established in the speech-to-text market, making them a recognizable and accessible choice.

However, there are tradeoffs to consider. Rev’s focus is primarily on transcription and captioning, with fewer offerings in areas like audio description, localization, and media accessibility at scale.

Where cielo24 relied on humans to deliver high-quality captioning and transcription, Rev takes an AI-first approach, which can result in lower accuracy and may fall short of certain compliance standards.

It’s also important to note that your data will not be automatically transferred to Rev, so if you were already considering switching vendors, now would be an opportune time.

As a result, while Rev provides continuity for some needs, organizations looking for a comprehensive accessibility and localization partner may need to explore additional alternatives.

The Case for Switching to 3Play Media

Now that we’ve broken down the advantages and disadvantages of migrating to Rev, let’s look at some of the reasons you should consider switching to 3Play Media for your accessibility and localization needs.

Comprehensive Solutions for Service Gaps

Your previous provider’s transition may result in significant gaps in specialized services that 3Play Media fully supports, such as:

Audio Description

For organizations that rely on audio description to make their video content fully accessible, 3Play Media offers a clear advantage. Unlike Rev, 3Play delivers high-quality audio descriptions that meet ADA and accessibility compliance standards.

With options for AI-scripting or professional human scripting, organizations can deliver accessible visual content at scale without breaking the budget. 3Play supports both standard and extended audio description.

Live Captioning Solutions

For organizations hosting live events or streaming video content, 3Play Media offers reliable live captioning solutions that Rev does not provide. With 3Play, captions are delivered in real time through our professional captioners to ensure accuracy and accessibility.

Furthermore, our flexible live services include both verbatim captioning and real-time summarization options to suit the unique needs of your audience.

Switching to 3Play ensures your live content is fully inclusive, helping you meet ADA and other accessibility requirements while engaging all viewers.

Accessible Video Player Support

Many cielo24 customers relied heavily on their accessibility plugin to make video content more inclusive and user-friendly. 3Play Media’s Access Player offers a comparable plugin that provides searchable time-synced transcripts, audio description integration, and more.

Unlike Rev, which does not provide a comparable player, 3Play’s solution gives you the tools to deliver an accessible, engaging video experience directly to your audience.

Panopto Integration

For organizations using Panopto to manage and share video content, 3Play Media offers seamless integration that Rev does not support.

This allows captions, transcripts, and other accessibility features to be automatically synced within the Panopto platform, streamlining workflows and saving time.

Dubbing Solutions

If you would like to give your content localization an upgrade, 3Play Media offers professional dubbing services that make your videos accessible and engaging for global audiences.

Our process combines AI-assisted voice generation with human review to ensure natural, high-quality audio that matches the original tone and intent while keeping costs low. 

Accuracy

When considering switching captioning and transcription vendors, accuracy is a crucial metric to consider, so we’ll break down how 3Play compares to Rev.

Measured Accuracy: Rev vs. 3Play Media

To compare accuracy, we conducted an analysis where we submitted the same files to both Rev and 3Play Media, then measured the number of errors on each platform.

3Play Media guarantees a minimum of 99% accuracy for every file processed, with an actual measured accuracy rate of 99.6% — achieved through a three-step process that combines Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), human editing, and human quality review.

In contrast, Rev’s measured accuracy rate falls between 84.7% and 94.4%, according to our analysis. This range indicates a higher potential for errors, which can be particularly problematic for content that requires precise transcription, such as legal, medical, or educational materials.

Click here to view the full analysis.

Implications of Accuracy Differences

• Compliance Risks: For organizations subject to accessibility regulations, such as the ADA or Section 508, inaccuracies in captions and transcripts can lead to compliance issues.
• User Experience: Inaccurate captions can hinder comprehension, especially for viewers who rely on them for understanding spoken content.
• Brand Reputation: Consistently accurate captions reflect a commitment to quality and inclusivity, enhancing an organization’s reputation.

More Benefits of Choosing 3Play

Beyond accuracy and reliability, 3Play Media offers additional benefits that make us the most comprehensive partner for your accessibility and localization needs.

• Robust Integration Capabilities: With over 40 integrations and flexible APIs, 3Play Media ensures seamless workflows across various platforms like Kaltura, Mediasite, Echo360, Yuja, and more. Rev supports only 8 integrations and offers limited API functionalities.

• Guaranteed Turnaround Times: 3Play Media offers six turnaround options, each backed by embedded Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to guarantee timely completion. Rev’s turnaround times are estimated and can range from 24 hours to 6 days.
• Comprehensive Support: 3Play Media provides email, phone, and chat support, resolving most tickets in under 24 hours. Rev offers only email and article-based support.
• Data Privacy Commitment: 3Play Media prioritizes user privacy, ensuring that customer data is not sold or integrated into open platforms like ChatGPT. Rev, however, has a license to use customer data indefinitely and includes OpenAI as a subprocessor.

Comparison

Rev vs. 3Play Media

Read a full breakdown of the differences between Rev and 3Play Media.

Learn More

Service Continuity and Immediate Support

We are immediately available to meet with you and discuss your specific accessibility and localization needs. Here’s how we can support you for a seamless switch:

• No Disruption: We understand that every day lost is a compliance risk. We have the infrastructure and team capacity to immediately take on your projects and process backlog content.
• Free Asset Import: We will provide free import for all your existing media assets and data, ensuring your library and historical information are securely migrated to our platform.
• Simplify Procurement: If you already have an existing contract or working relationship with 3Play Media, transitioning your services to our platform will be easier and faster than starting a new procurement process with Rev.
• Equivalent Service Matching: We are committed to understanding your existing pricing structure and the exact details of the services you received (e.g., speaker labels, glossaries) and will do what we can to match or get close to pricing for equivalent, high-quality services.

Next Steps

The closure of a trusted vendor like cielo24, coupled with a transition to a potentially AI-first solution, creates immediate workflow and compliance concerns for many organizations.

Rather than struggling to retrofit a new, generic service onto your specialized needs, and risking the loss of critical services like Audio Description or certified Live Captioning, this moment presents an opportunity.

3Play Media is a stable, long-term partner that specializes in scalable, human-in-the-loop solutions, guaranteeing 99%+ accuracy and seamless compatibility with platforms like Panopto.

Don’t delay your accessibility roadmap; schedule a consultation today to secure a free asset import and ensure your content remains fully compliant:

About the author

Noah Pearson

As a marketing specialist with 3Play Media, Noah specializes in accessibility and localization content creation, leveraging his technology expertise to help organizations expand their global reach and create a more inclusive digital experience.

The post cielo24 Acquisition: The Case for Migrating to 3Play Media appeared first on 3Play Media.

Blog

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• Legislation & Compliance

ADA Title II: What Public Entities Need to Know in 2026

Noah Pearson

•

September 4, 2025

Free Webinar: ADA Title II Deep Dive

With compliance deadlines for ADA Title II swiftly approaching, it is crucial for public entities to understand the scope of this ruling and the steps they can take not only to achieve compliance for their digital content, but also to maintain it in the long term.

Read on to learn what Title II entails, what digital content is covered, and the steps your organization can take to maintain compliance.

Key Takeaways

• ADA Title II is the section of the Americans with Disabilities Act that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all programs, services, and activities provided by state and local governments (this includes public colleges and universities).
• Organizations serving a population of 50,000 or more have until April 24th, 2026, to meet Title II requirements; organizations with less than 50,000 have until April 24th, 2027.
• ADA Title II now requires public entities to make their digital content compliant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, a set of guidelines that ensures web content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for people with disabilities.

Table of Contents

• ADA Title II: Background
• What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
• Who is Covered under ADA Title II?
• ADA Title II Compliance Deadlines
• Consequences of Non-Compliance with ADA Title II
• ADA Title II and WCAG 2.1 Level AA
• ADA Title II for Higher Education
• Video Accessibility for ADA Title II
• Next Steps for Title II Compliance

ADA Title II: Background

The U.S. Department of Justice’s final rule on Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has made one thing clear: digital accessibility is no longer optional for public entities.

In 2025, public universities, community colleges, and other public entities are facing a new reality, as the vague legal expectations of the past have been replaced by a concrete, enforceable standard.

While these new accessibility requirements might seem like a burden, they are actually a significant opportunity. According to the CDC, over 70 million adults report having a disability in the US alone.

Additionally, the Valuable 500 found that people with disabilities, as well as their friends and families, have $13 trillion of spending power.

By making your digital content accessible, you don’t just comply with the law, you unlock a brand-new audience.

This blog is being published in tandem with the recording of 3Play Media and TPGi‘s co-sponsored webinar, “ADA Title II: What Public Entities Need to Know About Digital Accessibility“. For a deeper dive into this topic, this webinar can be viewed for free on demand!

What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

Definition

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, ensuring equal opportunities for all.

The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life.

Enacted in 1990, the ADA initially focused exclusively on the physical world, for example, installing a wheelchair ramp at the entrance of a public building.

However, as the world became increasingly digital, the ADA expanded to include websites, online video, and other forms of digital content. The ADA now ensures that all public entities, regardless of size, must make their digital presence accessible to all.

The ADA is broken down into five titles:

In this article, we will be focusing on Title II and how it applies to digital content and services.

Who is Covered under ADA Title II?

ADA Title II applies to all state and local governments, including their departments, agencies, and any other public entities. This means the law covers every program, service, and activity they offer, regardless of whether they receive federal funding.

To take public universities and community colleges as an example, this includes everything from a university’s website and digital learning platforms to online course content and public-facing video materials.

According to ada.gov, other examples include:

Essentially, if a government agency at the state or local level offers a program or service, it must be accessible to everyone.

What is Covered under ADA Title II?

Examples of digital content and services that fall under this umbrella include (but are not limited to):

• All public-facing websites and mobile applications
• Online forms and application portals (e.g., for licenses, benefits)
• Digital documents and publications (e.g., PDFs, reports, brochures)
• Official social media posts and announcements
• Video and audio content (which must have captions or transcripts)
• Any digital service or content provided through a third-party contractor or vendor

ADA Title II Compliance Deadlines

Deadlines for Title II of the ADA are dependent on the size of the jurisdiction the public entity resides in.

Erik Ducker, Sr. Director of Product Marketing at 3Play Media, lays out these deadlines (and who they apply to) in this video, clipped from our ADA Title II webinar:

Consequences of Non-Compliance with ADA Title II

Failing to comply with the digital accessibility requirements of ADA Title II can expose public entities to significant risks, from legal action to financial penalties and reputational damage.

Financial and Legal Penalties

• Lawsuits and Fines: The Department of Justice (DOJ) can file lawsuits against non-compliant entities. Civil penalties can be substantial, with fines possibly exceeding $100,000, according to the ADA.
• Costly Settlements: While most cases are settled before going to court, these settlements often require the entity to pay for the plaintiff’s legal fees and implement expensive accessibility overhauls. An example of one such settlement is National Association of the Deaf v. Harvard.
• Loss of Funding: In cases involving public schools and universities, a finding of non-compliance by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can lead to a loss of federal funding.

Reputational Damage

• Damaged Reputation: Non-compliance can lead to negative publicity and public backlash, creating the perception that the institution is not inclusive or welcoming to people with disabilities.
• Exclusion of Audience: Inaccessible digital content excludes a significant portion of the population. A commitment to accessibility, on the other hand, demonstrates good governance and public service, fostering a more inclusive and engaged community.

ADA Title II and WCAG 2.1 Level AA

The new ADA Title II rule provides clarity by adopting a specific technical standard for digital accessibility. Public entities must now make their digital content and services compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.

WCAG is an internationally recognized set of guidelines for making digital content accessible to people with disabilities.

The “2.1” refers to a specific version that includes new success criteria for mobile devices and users with low vision. “Level AA” is the conformance level that dictates the necessary standards you must meet.

You can read more about the WCAG 2.1 requirements and distinction between levels on W3C’s website.

WCAG 2.1 is built on four core principles that guide digital content accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust; forming the acronym “POUR”.

In the clip below (also from our Title II webinar), David Sloan, Chief Accessibility Officer at Vispero, breaks down the four principals of WCAG 2.1.

ADA Title II for Higher Education

For public universities and community colleges, the new ADA Title II rule brings a significant shift: digital accessibility is now a clear, legal requirement, not just a best practice.

The new rule for public colleges and universities mandates a proactive approach, requiring all digital content to be accessible from the outset, not only when an accommodation is requested.

This is important because the majority of students with a disability do not report it to their college or university, according to the National Center of Education Statistics.

This approach is critical to ensuring an equitable learning experience for all students, whether or not they’ve officially requested accommodations.

What Content is Covered?

The rule applies to every digital service, program, and activity your institution provides, affecting a wide range of content.

This includes:

• University Websites: Main university sites, department pages, and alumni portals.
• Online Learning Platforms: All content within Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Canvas or Blackboard.
• Course Materials: Lecutre videos, Digital documents, presentations, and syllabi.
• Third-Party Content: Any external content or tools you provide to students through a contractual, licensing, or other arrangement.

This move toward “accessible by default” impacts not just IT departments, but every faculty member and staff creator who produces or manages digital content.

Solutions

Title II Compliance for Higher Education

An established leader in higher education accessibility solutions, 3Play Media is your partner in creating a truly inclusive learning environment. Learn more:

Higher Ed Solutions

ADA Title II Compliance

Video Accessibility for ADA Title II

For public entities, video is a powerful communication tool, but under the new ADA Title II rule, it is also a major compliance concern.

The rule mandates that all video content, from online courses and training materials to public meetings and social media posts, must be made fully accessible to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.

To comply, your videos need to include the following elements:

• Accurate Captions: Both live and pre-recorded videos must have accurate, synchronized captions to provide access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. These captions must include not only spoken dialogue but also sound effects and musical cues.
• Audio Description: Pre-recorded videos that contain important visual-only information, such as on-screen text, charts, or actions, must have an audio description track. This separate narration describes the key visual details for users who are blind or have low vision.
• Transcripts: A text transcript of the video’s dialogue and important sounds is a best practice. This provides an easy-to-read, searchable, and shareable version of the video’s content, benefiting all users (and boosting SEO!).

Read more about ADA Title II requirements for video:

The Role of Responsible AI in Video Accessibility

From vast libraries of pre-recorded lectures to ongoing live events, the volume of content can make full compliance seem overwhelming. This is where AI becomes a powerful tool, but it’s crucial to understand the difference between simply using AI and using it responsibly.

AI-powered solutions can dramatically accelerate the process by generating an initial layer of accessibility. This includes:

• Automated Captioning: AI’s Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) can quickly produce captions for thousands of hours of video, providing a strong starting point for remediation.
• AI-Scripted Audio Description: Generative AI and computer vision can analyze a video’s visual track to provide a rough script for audio description.

However, relying solely on AI is a significant risk. The new ADA Title II rule mandates compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which requires a high level of accuracy that AI alone often cannot meet.

3Play Media’s 2025 State of ASR Report found that in higher education, the top AI-powered engines still had a word error rate of 6.4%*. That equates to around 1 in every 16 words being incorrect.

That’s why 3Play Media utilizes a “human-in-the-loop” approach to ensure high quality, while drastically increasing efficiency and affordability.

This method combines the speed and scale of AI with the precision of expert editors, giving you a scalable solution for all your video accessibility needs. Using this method, 3Play can guarantee 99% accuracy for video captions—well above the 93.6% accuracy achieved by using AI alone.

* This percentage represents the average of the top 4 ASR engines that were tested.

Next Steps for Title II Compliance

Navigating the new ADA Title II rule can feel overwhelming, but your institution doesn’t have to tackle it alone.

An established leader in higher education accessibility solutions, 3Play Media provides a scalable and reliable way to ensure all your video content meets the new WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements.

Our “human-in-the-loop” approach delivers high-quality captions, transcripts, and audio description, giving you a clear roadmap to compliance.

For a deep dive into ADA Title II, requirements, deadlines, solutions, and more, watch our free webinar, now available on demand:

Watch Now

ADA Title II: What Public Entities Need to Know About Digital Accessibility

About the author

Noah Pearson

As a marketing specialist with 3Play Media, Noah specializes in accessibility and localization content creation, leveraging his technology expertise to help organizations expand their global reach and create a more inclusive digital experience.

The post ADA Title II: What Public Entities Need to Know in 2026 appeared first on 3Play Media.

Blog

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• Captioning

Captioning and Transcription for Higher Education

Noah Pearson

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May 21, 2025

Strategizing Accessibility in Higher Education [Webinar]

There are many benefits to offering captions for online video in higher education institutions. Closed captioning in higher education makes videos more accessible to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. By prioritizing video accessibility, colleges and universities can ensure that more students have equal access to educational content and media.

Importantly, providing accessible video content is not just a best practice—it is a legal obligation. Under various legislation, colleges and universities are required to ensure effective communication with individuals with disabilities.

While captions are primarily intended to make videos accessible to people with disabilities, they can also benefit all students. One study revealed that 80% of people who use captions are not deaf or hard of hearing – they find that captions improve their engagement, focus, and comprehension.

Another study by the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP) explored the impact of captions and transcripts on student learning. The results shed light on the value of captions in the classroom and showed that accessible video could have a positive impact on students’ performance.

What’s Important for Captioning in Higher Education?

Caption Accuracy

Inaccurate captions are frustrating for anyone, but for students, it’s particularly detrimental to their learning and performance. Many students rely on captions to assist them in their studies, especially those who are:

• D/deaf or hard of hearing
• English language learners or non-native English speakers
• Individuals with learning disabilities

Accurate captions are a necessity for higher education institutions because students must have access to accurate learning materials, including educational videos.

Note that in 2019, the court acknowledged that caption accuracy is critical to accessibility as seen in its decision for the NAD v. Harvard and NAD v. MIT accessibility suits.

Timeliness

Captions must be made available simultaneously with the video content to ensure that all students have equal access to instructional materials. This is especially critical in educational environments where videos are used as part of core instruction, assignments, or assessments.

When captions are delayed, students who are deaf or hard of hearing, or who rely on captions for comprehension, may fall behind or miss essential information. This creates a situation of unequal access, which can not only disadvantage the student academically but may also place the institution at risk of noncompliance with federal accessibility laws.

Billing Flexibility

Universities often have many different departments and may even have additional campuses aside from the main campus. Higher education institutions require flexible billing options to bill each department or campus separately and to provide specific administrators access to billing information. A smooth billing process helps to make the entire captioning process painless, efficient, and sustainable.

Legal Compliance and Accessibility Standards

Higher education institutions are legally obligated to ensure that all students, including those with disabilities, have equal access to academic content and services. This includes captioning and transcription for video and audio materials, which are considered essential components of accessible communication.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA is a foundational civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. Two key sections apply to colleges and universities:

• Title II applies to public institutions (such as state colleges and universities), requiring them to provide equal access to all programs, services, and activities. This includes ensuring that digital content is accessible through accurate captioning and transcription.
• Title III applies to private institutions, mandating that they remove barriers to access and provide auxiliary aids and services, including captioning, to ensure effective communication with students with disabilities.

Click here for information on the rapidly approaching ADA compliance deadlines.

The Rehabilitation Act

Two key provisions of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are especially relevant to higher education institutions:

• Section 504: Requires institutions receiving federal funding to provide equal access to students with disabilities through academic adjustments and auxiliary aids, such as captions and transcripts.
• Section 508: Mandates that electronic and information technology used by federally funded institutions be accessible, following standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Common Challenges in Captioning for Higher Education

Restricted Budgets

State schools have set funding for academic programs and departments, whether it be from private donations or state and federal funding. This requires state schools to operate within a limited budget, which is one of their most significant barriers to captioning. They will look for a captioning solution that allows them to stay within budget while still maintaining a 99% accuracy rate of their content.

Workflow and Compatibility

While the process for captioning in higher education varies from college to college, there are often several steps a professor must go through to get a video captioned on time. Sending a captioning request may take a lot of back and forth. Having a solution that helps a college streamline the captioning process will ensure that videos are captioned when students need them.

There are many options for lecture capture systems and video platforms, and schools will use whichever platform fits their unique needs. To ensure their transcription and captioning processes are seamless and efficient, schools will look for captions that are compatible with their lecture capture systems and video platforms.

Complex Content

Higher education institutions offer multiple areas of study and hundreds of degrees and certificates with different focuses. For reference, the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers over 600 undergraduate majors and certificates. With large amounts of high-level content in varying subjects, it’s a challenge for schools to ensure their content is transcribed accurately.

How Captions & Transcripts Impact Students’ Performance

What Vendor Features Are Important for Higher Education?

Guaranteed Accuracy

3Play Media’s closed captions and transcripts comply with federal accessibility laws. Our captions provide a measured accuracy rate of 99.6%, and we guarantee at least 99% accuracy, even in cases of poor audio quality, multiple speakers, difficult content, and accents.

Competitive Pricing

Our advanced technology is what enables our competitive prices, but our quality assurance measures ensure that our caption quality is top-notch. We also offer flexible billing, allowing customers to have project-level billing for higher education organizations that require that multiple departments and campuses are billed separately or have access to separate billing information.

Skilled Transcript Editors

3Play Media always provides accurate transcripts for a broad range of complex content. We have a staff of thousands of skilled transcript editors who can edit content from topics in which they are knowledgeable. We also allow customers to upload wordlists with correct spellings, punctuation, and capitalization for difficult words and subject-specific terms.

Video Platform Integrations

Integrations with lecture capture systems and online video management platforms allow for a more streamlined captioning process. 3Play offers integrations with all major video players, including Kaltura, Panopto, Mediasite, Echo360, and YouTube. Our integrations will automatically post your captions back to your video, giving you more time to focus on other projects.

User-friendly Account System

Our Account System is easy for customers to use, and you can rest assured that captioning won’t be a complicated endeavor. Each account can support multiple users, departments, and permissions. Account admins can control user access to any of the core account functions like invoices & billing, uploading, editing, publishing control, and user management. On top of that, we have a fabulous support team to help you along the way.

Higher Education Institutions that Use 3Play Media

This blog post is written for educational and general information purposes only, and does not constitute specific legal advice. This blog should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state.

This blog was originally published on April 27, 2020 by Jaclyn Leduc and has since been updated by Abby Alepa and Noah Pearson for accuracy, clarity, and freshness.

About the author

Noah Pearson

As a marketing specialist with 3Play Media, Noah specializes in accessibility and localization content creation, leveraging his technology expertise to help organizations expand their global reach and create a more inclusive digital experience.

The post Captioning and Transcription for Higher Education appeared first on 3Play Media.